Social Media Service For Hospitality Industry Shows Early Results

Flip.to, the social media service that turns hotel guests into brand advocates is announcing significant preliminary results for two beta clients. The service, based on 'magnetic marketing' versus traditional push or pull advertising, engages customers at the time of booking.

At no other time is there a greater attraction between a brand and consumer than the bond that is created when a customer is ready to confirm a sale. Flip.to and other services that are focused on utilizing social media during this stage of the buying cycle are learning that it is the most effective form of customer engagement. And the results substantiate this dynamic.

Flip.to has built a platform that actually interacts with a hotel Web site's booking engine and allows communication with a guests and their social network followers immediately after they have booked a room at the hotel.

Over the last 4 months, The James Chicago has increased brand awareness with the help of their guests, at the time they are reserving a room at the hotel. To date, 40 percent of their booking guests have engaged with Flip.to, spreading the word to their friends and followers about their upcoming stay at The James via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. And each post they’ve made - has on average brought 8 new folks over to The James’ site.

This is an extremely high level of engagement for a hotel. While a hotel that caters to a younger tech-savvy demographic might see percentages scale quicker, other hotels that reach a broader audience are beginning to see their numbers grow as well. The Tune Hotels in South East Asia and the UK have garnered percentages that have reached 22 percent in just one month.

With Facebook's base reaching 500+ million users, social media has become so mainstream that hotels that are currently not engaging with their customers via social networking platforms will slowly lose their competitive edge over time.

During the last thirty days,, Flip.to has also generated over 3,300 newsletter sign-ups for Tune Hotels. This calculates out to 60 sign-ups for every 100 hotel guests that post on social networks via Flip.to, at time of booking. Newsletter registrations allow hotel groups like Tune to increase loyalty while communicating with new and frequent guests on an ongoing basis.

Tune Hotels newsletter sign-up

In addition to engaging guests at time of booking, Flip.to is adding a "Concierge/ Suggestions" landing page for guests to communicate with their social network followers prior and during their stay - as well as developing a critique and recommendation process for guests to communicate with their communities and rating sites like TripAdvisor, post stay.

Still accepting Beta clients, Flip.to welcomes all hoteliers to a tour of their service at their Web site. There, they can request a formal Web presentation. Beta clients who are currently signing up with the service gain by becoming an interactive partner with Flip.to, where they can collaboratively be instrumental in suggesting the customization of new features and enhancements of the product's future iterations.

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